Excursions

You should start getting acquainted with the town in Sobornaya Square which is the historical centre of the town. The most distinguishing is the magistrate (№2), constructed in the second half of the 18^th century. It was the organ of the local government founded by Peter the Great.

As it was recommended in the Law of 1721 it was built in the central square. The build is in baroque with columns and cornices. This is the only remaining building of the magistrate which was not rebuilt, and this makes it especially valuable. You can’t help admiring Voskresensky Cathedral which was being built for 28 tears (1814-1842). It’s one of the best worship buildings of the region. The author, architect M. Korinphsky managed to construct the majestic cathedral in honour of the victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1812 The spectacular five-tower cathedral is clearly seen for many kilometers on the high hill above the Tesha; if dominates the town being its symbol. The cathedral is decorated with academician. Stupin’s paintings.

Next to the cathedral there is a warm church of Invigorating Spring (1794). In the same square there is a complex of Nickolsky female monastery, which was famous for golden, sewing. The nuns’ works of art were bought even in Greece and in Jerusaleum. Most cathedrals build by Arzamas merchants in the 17^th – 19^th centuries are as beautiful as the cathedrals in Moscow. In the 19^th century there were more than 30 cathedrals and 4 monasteries in Arsamas. Owing to such a great amount of churches and close connections of Arzamas with Moscow there appeared a comparison: "The town of Arzamas is a corner of Moscow".

Needless to say, the civil buildings in Sobornaya square attract visitors’ attention as well (№ 3, 4, 16), especially the Budilins’ twin-houses. During the reign of Catherine the Great the towns of uezds together with the traditionalplanning got 224 exemplary projects of stone "classical" buildings for central streets. They were realised in Arzamas. 

We can’t but mention a splendid street – Gostiny Ryad, leading down the square. On its both sides there is a pavement descending by terraces.

If you turn left to Uritsky Street you’ll notice trade stalls built in the classical style ar the end of the 18^th century. It's decorated with pilasters of the Ionic order and a big pediment.  On the hill to the left the oldest Spaso-Preobrazhensky cathedral dominates Uritsky Street (1643) It was a part of Spassky male monastery in 1556, which was founded for turning the local population into orthodoxy.

Go to the right in Lenin Street and then adain to the right, to Spacemen Street. In the lower part of the town two-storey stone houses remain, built by design of the beginning of the 19^th century classical.

These are Serebrennickov and Vavin’s houses (41, Lenin Street, 38, Spacemen Str.).

Here, in 1, Lenin Street there is a private museum “The World of Past Times”. The Balandins’ collected unique items of the 18th-19th centuries in the course of 20 years.

Inside Iliynskaya church (1746) (39a Spacemen’s str.) there is a historical museum. To return to Sobornaya square you should go along Vladimirsky street. Turn to the right and you’ll find yourself in walkers’ Marks Street (former Salnickov street). At the point of its intersection with Gorky Street you’ll see the A. Gaidar Museum (18, Gorky str.) and a monument to the writer, made by the local sculptor M. Limonov. The monument portrays 14-year old A. Golickov leaving his native town. His parents’ house stands side by side with the monument. The writer spent his childhood in this house (1912-1918), underwent treatment after being wounded, from here he went to the front and became the youngest Red Army regiment commander in 1922.   

Gaidar came to his parents’ house again in 1935. He was a well-known writer at that time. The writer spent several months there working at his short story “The Blue Cup”.

In Marks str. You’ll certainly admire the old dwellings of the 19^th century like Doctor Doroshevich’s house (№ 12) or a standard house (№ 26). There is the M. Gorky’s museum is close by (17, Marks str.). in 1902 being in exite under supervision of the police Gorky lived in the house of the merchant-wife Podsosova for 4 months. He worked at his play "Na dne" ("In the Bottom"). Local impressions were the basis of his drama "The Barbarians" and his short stories "Town Okurov" and "The Life of  Matvey Kozhemyakin". Among the guests who visited Gorky at that period were L. Andreev, S. Skitalets and V. Nemirovich-Danchenko. The writer had contacts with local social-democrats and helped them in their activities. Gorky presented the town with a library and took part in collecting the money for building a water supply which was built by his acquaintance - priest Fedor Vladimirsky.

At the point of intersection of Marx str. and Stupin str. there is a garden with a monument to Marks made by the local sculptor M. Limonov.

In the building of the former ecclesiastical college (now its Arzamas Pedagogical Institute named after A. Gaidar) in 1918 there was the headquarters of the Eastern Front of the Red Army. It was commanded by I. Vatsetis, later by S. Kamenev. On the outside wall you’ll see a memorial board showing the native of the town, the future Patriarch Sergi Stargorodsky. Sergi (Ivan Stargorodsky) (1867-1944), the Patriarch of Moscow and Russia, was born in Arzamas to the family of a priest. He studied at N. Novgorod ecclesiastical seminary and then at St. Petersburg ecclesiastical academy. Sergi worked in the Japanese orthodox mission, was a ship priest on board the ship “Pamyat Azova”. Coning back to Russia he went to Greece and then back to Japan. In 1901 he is the rector of St. Petersburg ecclesiastical academy in the rank of a bishop. Since 1905 he is Archbishop of Finland and Vyborg. Since  the end of 1917 up till 1924 he was the Metropolitan of N. Novgorod. After Patriarch Nickon’s death in 1925 Sergi became the head of the Russian church and made a lot of efforts to keep the church in the country of the Soviets. At the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War  he addressed the believers with an appeal to defend our Motherland. On the 8^th of September 1943 at the Council of bishops Sergi was elected the Patriarch. After his death significant literary legacy was left such as theological research, articles, sermons and letters.

На пересечении с улицей Ступина - сквер, где установлен памятник Марксу работы арзамасского скульптора М.М. Лимонова.

В здании бывшего духовного училища (ныне Арзамасского педагогического института им. Гайдара, Маркса, 36), около которого установлен бюст писателя, в 1918 г. находился штаб Восточного фронта Красной Армии. Им командовали И. Вацетис, а затем С. Каменев. На здании установлена стела, изображающая уроженца г. Арзамаса будущего Патриарха Сергия Старгородского.

Marks Str. sets against Kalinin Str. On the left there is a water-tower (1900-s) and a theatre ahead. Turn to its right and you’ll find yourself in Gaidar Park. In the past it was Vsesvyatskoye graveyard where the famous Arzamas citizens were buried such as F. Vladimirsky, A. Stupin, and P. Golikov (A. Gaidar’s Father). Here the monument to A. GAidar was erected (sculptor Y. Struchkov) and a monument to Arzamas young people's glory (sculptor M. Limonov).

To the left of the monument there is May Square. Here there is a branch of N. Novgorod Technical University. The monumental building of the hospital after the name of F. Vladimirsky opens Kirov Street which goes back to Sobornaya Square. Let’s go along Kirov Street.

In Pushkin Square there is a monument to the great Russian poet (sculptor V. Klichkov, 1999). Pushkin is depicted in a traveling suit: he went through Arzamas. Behind the monument there is a building of town library (9, Svobody str.) and opposite it is the Children’s Theatre.

Let’s turn to the right to Stupin Street and then to Gagarin square. In the centre of Gagarin square there is a monument to the painter and teacher A. Stupin (sculptor V. Bobrov, 1959). Next to Gagarin square tourists will see the corner of old wooden houses of the 19th century.

The old dwellings (21, Sovetskaya str. ;  10, Verchnya Naberezhnaya), Tverdov’s house, Bessonova’s house (12, 14 Verchnya Naberezhnaya) are all worth seeing. At the point of intersection of Sovetskaya str., 1st of May street and Gorky str. there is a monument to M. Gorky (sculptor M. Limonov).

Take bus №1 and as far as the northern part of the town to Memory Garden and to the railway station Arzamas-1 (5 stops). Here, in the outskirts of the town in June 1988 there was a terrible explosion of a train which carried away the lives of a lot of the people and shook the whole country. At the spot of the ruined houses there is a garden now, in which the monument to the victims of the tragedy was erected.

Go along Verchnya Naberezhnaya to Sobornaya Square and you’ll admire the breathtaking nature around you. In the distance you’ll notice the Ivanovskiye slopes on which Razin’s rebels were executed in 1674. In the 19th century there were grave-side fellings, made in the old Mordovian tradition in honour of the 11 thousand dead peasants. They were described by V. Korolenko in his essay "God's Town". On the other side of the Tesha one can see Smolensky cathedral with a high dome and four columns (1815) and a bell-tower in the village of Viezdnoye.

Viezdnoye

The village of Viezdnoye was founded in 1552 by Ivan the Terrible for keeping watch over the Mordovian lands which joined the Moscow state. In the 17^th century the land was owned by boyar B. Morosov and since that time it had become a village. Later the village belonged to the counts Saltickovs. In 1981 Viezdnoye became a large working people settlement (8.200 people). The best place of interest of the village is Smolenskaya church in honour of God's mother's icon "Odigitriy", built in 1815 (tel. 40247). In the church you can see a wonder-working icon of the same name as well aas the picture "Crucification" ascribed to the great Spanish painter Murilio.

Viezdnoye – Diveevo

The road from Viezdnoye to Diveevo (60 km)  passes by ploughed up steppes and is not distinguished by the variety of landscape. Now the road ascends high givingg a traveller an opportunity to see everythingaround then it descends again to the valleys and ravins. You pass by  the village of Orechovets (20 km away from Viezdnoye). Decembrist F. Shachovskoy lived here in 1818-1826. He was arrested as a state criminal, was then sent to Turuchansk where he got mad. His tragic life ended in 1829 in Suzdal, in one of the monasteries.

On halfway from Arzamas  to Diveevo there is a turn to Pervomaisk. If you go that way, you’ll arrive at the village of Bolshoi Mackatelem. Its owner was A. Karamzin, a writer and an industrialist, a son of the famous historian. One can see the landlord's park with a pond remained from the 19th century.

Then comes the village of Rogozhka, where he and his wife were buried.

 The road turns to Shatki. It will lead you to Ponetaevka, an old Mordovian village, where  the buildings of Seraphimo-Ponetaevsky female monastery still remain built in 1869 from women's community which had been opened by General - Major's daughter E. Kopieva in her estate in 1864 in honour of the passed away St. Serafim Sarovsky. The monastery kept  the miraculous icon of the Omen of God’s Mother. It was painted in 1879 by one of the sisters, K. Voiloshnikova.

On the 14th of May, 1885 the people were amazed at the wonderful shining of the image of God’s mother and movement of her eyes. Since that time numerous miraculous healings have happened to the people suffering from various diseases, especialy eye diseases as well as rheumatics and nervous. The monastery had a church in town in N. Novgorod as well as Vvedensky small and secluded monastery, situated 15 km away fro Sarov. The monastery was famous for embroidery and an icon-painting workshop.

In the village of Suvorovo situated 15 km away from Diveevo there is Uspenskaya church (1849). Inside the church there are the relics of Saint Evdokia, Dariya and Maria. In the village of Elizariyevo (8 km away from Suvorovo) one can see Nickolskaya church (1821), an architectual monument.